Three Mane Team
by Spirals95
Summary: #30 and #31 of the Techorse series. Razor, a kind changeling dedicated to helping others of his kind make an honest living, has been captured. It's up to Techorse and two of his friends to get him back, otherwise there will be no hope for the new changeling colony. Twilight Sparkle doesn't like the idea of them going alone. Will her worries be justified?
1. Chapter 1

Three Mane Team - Part I

Techorse series: #30

By Spirals95

* * *

Fluttershy had found herself in a little bit of a predicament. She was enjoying a nice refreshing hide in fear under a large cardboard box because she had failed to show up to a promised meeting with a friend of hers for breakfast. Of course, Twilight was not going to let her friend intentionally not show up to the meeting, not simply because it was rude, but because earlier Fluttershy had nearly gotten the both of them squeezed by a giant snake over the issue of colts. Of course, she was still mortified at the thought of having to talk to Shadow Breeze over breakfast at Sugarcube Corner. There would be other ponies watching her, _in public_, trying to talk to a colt that'd she'd only known for a little while.

Twilight understood that her friend was making a large issue out of absolutely nothing, and that Shadow Breeze would feel a little bit hurt over her missing their breakfast together. Her horn glowed softly as she used a special spell used to see through thin wall segments, and scanned around for Fluttershy. The other residents in town gave her funny looks as she looked around the town square for her concealed friend.

"Where did you go?" She muttered, turning her head around and scanning the flat terrain of Ponyville.

Eventually, she scanned upon the overturned cardboard box by the town post office, and saw Fluttershy's silhouette clearly through the object.

"Aha!"

She ran over to the cardboard box, and with a kick of her back hooves knocked the container off of Fluttershy, who whimpered over being caught.

"Come on, Fluttershy, it's rude to be late!" Said Twilight, nearly shouting.

"I don't think I can talk to him." Explained Fluttershy, still sitting on the cool sidewalk, "I'm, I'm just too nervous!"

Twilight smiled, "What if I came with you? Would you feel more comfortable?"

"Oh… sure! That'd really help, thanks!" she said happily, her ears perking up in delight.

* * *

She slowly followed Twilight into Sugarcube Corner and found Shadow Breeze, one of only a few customers left in the building left from the breakfast rush, sitting at a table in the back of the room with an empty plate and mug, evidence of having finished his meal about 15 minutes before Fluttershy had arrived.

"Hey, you made it," He said, his brown eyes lighting up upon seeing the two entering the bakery, "I was just about to leave, I thought something might have happened!"

"Something did happen." Muttered Twilight, flicking her tail in frustration.

Fluttershy cautiously took the wooden chair across from Shadow Breeze and looked at the graphite-colored stallion nervously. He seemed equally concerned about how late Fluttershy was, but he tried to be polite by smiling and pretending that it wasn't really a big deal. Shadow Breeze turned away to talk to Twilight,

"It would have been fine with me if Fluttershy didn't show up, really." He answered, trying not to be rude or express frustration, "I could have tried to talk to her later at her house."

"Right Fluttershy?" He asked, turning his head back to her.

He gained a look of surprise when he realized he was talking to a long pink tail. Fluttershy had ducked her head under the table to avoid being seen, and her rear end stuck up above the table.

"What's wrong?" Asked Shadow, trying to be gentle.

Fluttershy wanted to continue to cower, but she really did want to be nice to Shadow, who'd gone to all the trouble to plan their conversation, and slowly stuck her head out, returning to a normal seating position at the table, "I dropped something, sorry."

Shadow Breeze smiled, he wasn't fooled by what she said, but was glad Fluttershy had managed to overcome her anxiety.

Pinkie Pie had heard the bell mounted above the door of the bakery, and bounded into the room from the kitchen, a tray of fresh sugar cookies bouncing precariously off of her head. She tossed the tray nonchalantly onto the display rack behind the counter, and to Twilight's surprise, not a single cookie fell out of place or cracked from the drop.

"Hey everypony!" She said, "Don't mind me, just stacking the cookies."

"Hi Pinkie Pie." said Twilight, taking a seat near the pair of pegasi, "I'll take a few of those and a glass of milk, please."

"All righty!" She cheered, leaning down behind the counter to grab a tray, showing her fluffy tail, "Anything for Fluttershy? We have some reeeeeally good brownies coming out!"

"No thanks." Said Fluttershy, "I'm not really hungry right now."

Twilight received her plate of cookies and tall glass of icy milk from a giggling Pinkie Pie, who knew that Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze were extremely uncomfortable. Twilight knew that someone had to break the awkward silence, or else her dragging of Fluttershy kicking and screaming would have been in vain.

"Maybe we should just go get something to drink, since we're not hungry." Suggested Shadow Breeze, fanning himself with a wing, "It's kind of hot out today."

"Oh, that's a great idea," said Fluttershy happily, "what should we get?"

"I know what would hit the spot!" Said Pinkie Pie, popping up on the table with a big jump, "A super-delicious icy and sugary root beer from Steiner's place!"

She flicked her tongue across her lips at the thought of getting to drink the sugary liquid and nearly drooled on the table. Twilight nibbled on her sugar cookies and tried not to laugh.

Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy left together to go grab a drink at the Froth Shop, leaving Pinkie Pie and Twilight alone.

"Gonna keep chasing them?" Teased Pinkie Pie, sitting down on the table.

Twilight shook her head, "It looks like Fluttershy overcame her fear and is going to have a great day with Shadow Breeze. My work here is done."

"So we're not getting a root beer?" Asked Pinkie Pie, frowning.

"We can get one later, promise!" Laughed Twilight, "I just don't think we should follow them around all day. Bad things tend to happen to us when we do that."

"You're absolutely right about that!" She giggled, paying attention for any twitches in her body, "We'll see how things went later. Hope they have tons of fun together."

* * *

Steiner's bar had plenty of customers due to the heat of the sun, and he was busy pouring several mugs of root beer. The unicorn pony was running out of stock fast, not expecting such a sudden shift in the weather, and knew he'd have to close early after selling out. When Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze entered the front door of the noisy shop, he nodded at them and ran over to his last keg to get them two mugs. He was completely out of everything else, even his vanilla ice cream supply was gone from the volume of customers.

The unicorn finished filling the two mugs he was holding onto with his magic, and slid them down the metal counter to Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze, who caught them with their front legs.

Fluttershy took a nice sip from the soothing mug of soda and subsequently asked, "What have you been doing this week?"

Shadow Breeze did his best to hear her over the other talking customers and answered, "Just studying how peace treaties are written, and taking care of my house plants."

"That sounds nice. I'd like to see your plants sometime," she said, "It'd be great if I could learn how to grow a few new flowers for my house. I'm sure my animals would love to have them to enjoy."

"I can show you this weekend." Suggested Shadow Breeze, hoping to get to spend more time with her, "I'll even give you a sprout, so you can get started."

"You'd give up a plant for me?" Asked Fluttershy with a surprised tone and a shimmer in her light blue eyes, knowing how valuable Shadow Breeze's plants were to him, "That's very sweet of you, Shadow. Thanks."

He blushed and tried to deal with the blood running to his face by taking several large swallows from his mug. The icy beverage running down his throat helped, but Fluttershy picked up on the blush and gave a shy smile. Some of the soda splashed out of the mug and got on the light blue stripes of Shadow's otherwise black mane.

Steiner simply laughed and went back to cleaning an empty mug with a dishrag.

Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze had a great time talking about what they had done with their week, mostly involving plants and animals, while the stream of customers entering the soda shop went from a good flow to a trickle. Steiner ran out of root beer within the hour, and decided to close up shop early. Just as he was about to go over to the glass door to switch his sign to closed, Techorse appeared at the door, his mane damp with sweat.

"Sorry Tech." Said Steiner, "I just ran out of stock and I'm closing up the store for the night."

"A glass of water please?" Asked an exhausted Techorse, hoping he'd get something to drink.

"Sure." Answered the unicorn pony as he opened the glass door, "Fluttershy and her friend are still here. We might as well enjoy the afternoon."

The green colt thanked him and walked into the cool air conditioned environment of the bar, a refreshing break from the heat. He made his way over to the bar and dropped himself onto one of the stools casually beside Shadow Breeze.

"Hey Shadow." He said tiredly, "What's up?"

"Fluttershy and I were just spending some time together." He replied, proud of himself, "You look beat."

Techorse nodded as he accepted a mug of ice water from Steiner, "I was out exercising and the sun was just too much for me."

A robotic arm extended out of his battle saddle, and grabbed the mug, which he downed in a little under a minute without even stopping for a breath.

"Oh my!" Exclaimed Fluttershy, "If it's really that hot out, we should probably just get home and stay inside."

"Ugh, no thank you." Moaned Steiner, stomping his left hoof and rolling his eyes, "My home's cooling system is broken. It's an oven in there!"

"Well we can't have you staying in your shop all night!" Protested Techorse, regaining hydration and strength from his drink, "Here's an idea, let's all hang out at my castle for the night."

Shadow Breeze smiled at the idea of getting to play some games with Techorse and Steiner. Techorse had some of the best board games in his home, and probably had many other neat inventions that could be fun to mess with. If he'd let him, of course.

"By the way, Shadow Breeze, this is Steiner." Techorse introduced his two friends, "Steiner, Shadow Breeze is studying law and diplomacy here in Ponyville. He wants to be a diplomat someday for Equestria."

"It's nice to meet you." Said Steiner, flicking his yellow and red tail, "Hopefully we'll get to know each other a bit better today, hmm?"

Fluttershy closed her eyes gently and smiled, she was glad to see that Techorse finally had some guy friends to spend time with.

"You can come too, Fluttershy." Offered Techorse.

"Oh, thank you." She said, "But I need to go back home and give the animals their lunches."

She dropped down from the tall metal bar stool and headed towards the glass door, but not before giving another look back at the dark gray pegasus pony staring at her.

"It was really nice, you know… talking to you." She said slowly.

"Yeah, you too." He stuttered, "Bye Fluttershy."

The door closed behind her, and the bells indicating a customer arriving jingled against the door softly, as Shadow Breeze let out a small sigh.

"She's a really nice pony!" Laughed Steiner, "Don't know that many who'd talk for so long about… plants, of all things!"

"Oh come on!" Groaned Shadow Breeze, "It's not that stupid to like taking care of houseplants."

"Of course it's not stupid!" Snickered the unicorn, "Just silly."

Shadow Breeze frowned and his ears drooped, he hated being picked on about his less stallion-y hobby.

Techorse tried to cheer him up, "Come on, let's go back to my place and have some fun! I've got plenty of canned lemonades and soft pretzels!"

"Soft pretzels?" Asked Shadow Breeze, lightening up.

There was no snack he loved more than soft pretzels, and Techorse knew that weakness from the times they had hung out before in the month since knowing him. The dark gray pegasus never passed up a chance to scarf down a hot pretzel, especially with cinnamon sugar on it.

"Yeah, soft pretzels!" Confirmed the inventor.

"Well let's go then!" Cheered Shadow Breeze, flapping his wings to jump off of his seat.

* * *

The three made their way back to the castle, and found themselves in front of the oak doors. Techorse turned on the intercom on the front of his home, and to his surprise, PAL was not there to greet them.

"PAL must be out shopping." He said to his friends, "I'll just get us in using the password."

Techorse nudged a few buttons on the intercom panel with his front hoof, and the oak doors slowly ground open, allowing the three to enter. Electrical lights turned on for them as they walked down the stone hallway, a new blue carpet underneath their hooves led down the clean and neat fortress. The friends entered the living room, where the once-roaring fireplace had been cleaned out of ash since the winter, and the light green and blue sofas Techorse used to seat his guests had been lined up to the sides of the flagstone mantle.

"So what should we play first?" Asked Shadow Breeze, "Got a particular favorite?"

"I've got plenty of them." Stated Techorse, looking at the game shelf in the room, which was piled high with board games he had collected over the past year, "I don't know if I could pick a favorite, besides Cooperation Castle 2."

"I haven't played that one before." Said the pegasus, "Can you play it with 3 players? It's always kind of hard to find a board game for 3 ponies."

"Sure you can!" Answered Techorse, pulling the game off of the shelf with his hooves. To his dismay, the large orange box containing the game fell out of his hooves and landed with a sharp smack on the ground.

His saddle opened up, and his robotic arms grabbed the game with a metal sound of servos.

"All we'll need to do is divide the pieces up into 3 teams across the square game board, and then we should be able to play against each other." He said, carrying the game over to his large, cherry wood coffee table, "Let's set up and play a round, then maybe we can move on to something else."

The board game went outrageously in Steiner's favor, as he managed to score several lucky rolls when attacking his two friend's pieces, and he ended up creaming poor Shadow Breeze's forces within just a few turns. Of course, the unicorn took the opportunity to tease the pony about his terrible gameplay, even though it had mostly come down to luck.

"Steiner, please stop!" Asked Shadow Breeze, "You're going to end up making me sit out most of the game."

"Better for me, less competition." He snickered, as he picked up the die to roll his last shot against Shadow Breeze's remaining unit.

Steiner's magic rolled the die across the table, and it landed near the edge. He went to read the result and gloat over his victory over his opponent, but before he could, the three friends heard a tapping noise.

Techorse's ears perked up at the noise, and he leaned over and put his head on the table, thinking that was the source of the strange scratching and tapping. When he concluded that it wasn't his table or any part of the game making the noise, he looked around to see if he could find it. Eventually, his eyes rested upon the window. The tapping noise started again, and he knew that something on the other side of the glass was hitting it. With his robot out of the house, it was up to the three ponies in the castle to figure out where that strange noise was coming from.

The inventor got up from the table, and his friends followed him over to the windowsill. The green stallion opened the window using his robotic arms, and looked around out his second-story window, in every direction. He couldn't see anything, and wondered if perhaps a bird or bug had been trying to get through the window by mistake.

But to him and his friends shock, there was a female changeling hovering outside of the window. She floated there outside on the power of her four-part insect wings, nervously looking at them with her cyan eyes, surrounded by white, unlike the males of her species. Her chitinous hair was in a bob cut, and her scythe-esque horn extended above her ears. She asked nervously of him,

"Hey there, you're Techorse right?"

Techorse's first thought was to switch to his laser cannons, but he figured that since she knew his name and had come alone, that she probably was not going to be much harm.

"Yes…" He said, adrenaline still flowing through his veins from the surprise, "I'm Techorse. Proud owner of a front door nopony seems to want to use."

She gave a slight blush and said, "Sorry, but I didn't think you'd let me in, to be honest, seeing as I'm a changeling."

"That doesn't really make a difference to me, so long as you're friendly." He answered, "I hope…"

The female licked one of her fangs with a forked tongue, and answered, "I'm friendly, I promise. My name is Nectar, I'm from the new changeling colony that Razor set up."

Now that was a name Techorse recognized! It was his friend Razor, a kindly changeling who wanted to break free from Chrysalis' rule and offer a home to changelings where they could honestly earn the love they needed to metabolize their food. This changeling in front of him must belong to the new nest, or so he thought.

"How's Razor doing?" Beamed Techorse, smiling broadly, "I haven't heard from him in a long time!"

"That's just it!" She said desperately, "May I come in and talk with you?"

His companions seemed rather shocked that their friend was able to hold a conversation with a changeling without freaking out about it, but Techorse nodded, and Nectar flew into the room gently. She landed on the ground, and her wings folded to her armored, green colored midsection.

"These are my friends Shadow Breeze, and Steiner." Techorse said to her while pointing to his still startled friends.

"It's very nice to meet you all." She said humbly, "It must be very weird for you to see a changeling behaving friendly towards ponies, but you've got to understand that not all of us are bad. Some of us want peace, and freedom from Queen Chrysalis's iron hoof."

Shadow Breeze knew how important peace was, and approached her calmly, "It's nice to meet you too. All I knew before now was about the attack on Canterlot. It's good to know that there are changelings who are on our side too."

"Agreed." Said Steiner in a serious tone of voice, "Now tell us, Nectar, what has gone wrong with your friend Razor?"

Nectar explained rather dramatically, "Queen Chrysalis has taken Razor captive and she's told our colony that if we don't turn ourselves in, she'll squish him! They've set up a fort a few miles from the colony, and are going to raid us in a few days if we don't respond."

"That's awful!" Exclaimed Shadow Breeze, dreading the idea of being crushed.

Techorse's mouth fell open in horror, but he regained himself and said, "We need to get the army. I'll contact Princess Celestia."

"We can't use your guards." Nectar explained, shaking her head, "Chrysalis said that if she spots any of the Equestrian guard, or any of Celestia's close followers, she'll do Razor in right there."

"Then we need to explain the situation to the princesses anyways and figure out what to do there." He said, "We can't let Chrysalis shut down Razor's colony. It'll mean the end of hope for peace between all of us."

"So you'll help me rescue him?" She asked hopefully, "You'll help me get my husband back?"

"Husband?" Asked a shocked Techorse, "I didn't realize Razor was married to you. Congratulations!"

Nectar admitted with a blush to her dark cheeks, "Well, he's not my husband yet. Or my fiancé. We're not even dating at all. But I know he will be someday!"

Steiner snickered, and Techorse tried his hardest not to roll his eyes at the silly behavior. It did seem like she really did care about Razor, even if she probably did drive him nuts back at their colony.

"Let's go get Twilight and her friends. We need to talk everything over with the Princesses, and come up with a plan of action. Hopefully we can come to some kind of agreement with the other changelings and get Razor back in one piece." He said.

She threw her perforated legs around him and ground her face against his in a happy, but overly tight hug, "Oh thank you so much Mr. Techorse! I knew my Razor-sweetie liked you for the right reasons!"

"You're crushing me!" Gasped Techorse, trying to keep his ribs from entering his lungs.

Nectar let him go and blushed again, "Sorry, I'm just really thankful. I thought you were going to say no at first. Ponies usually hate us changelings. I didn't even think explaining my situation would have won me much help."

"But you guys are a different type of changeling." He explained, pointing at her with a hoof, "You want to earn a living without harming us. I think we can all be friends."

"You mean it?" She asked, smiling.

"Of course!" He answered, "Right guys?"

"Absolutely!" Answered the others together.

"So what should we do now?" Asked the changeling female, her wings beating with excitement.

"Let's get my friends and travel to Canterlot. From there we can figure out how we're going to get Razor back, and stop Chrysalis." He answered confidently, "Let's grab our gear and get going!"

* * *

The three friends split up to prepare for the trip and the eventual conflict with the changelings. Shadow Breeze returned to his apartment and recovered his magical amulet from his safe, while Steiner returned to his shop and packed several magical brews that he thought might come in handy while out in the field. Techorse loaded his battle saddle out, fitting in his trusty laser cannons, his missile launcher with a full set of ammo, and of course his turbofans for flight and robotic arms for grabbing things. Once they had picked up their gear of choice, they returned to Nectar and took her to the library to go find Twilight Sparkle. As it had turned out, she had invited Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie over to make plans for the week on attending a new display of confectionary flowers the flower-peddling ponies of the town were going to set up. Explaining the situation to them was fairly easy, and Twilight agreed to teleport all seven of them to the castle in Canterlot in order to speak with the princesses about the situation. She had Spike send a message ahead of them so that they would not show up unannounced, and then, she had her friends step outside for the short jump.

* * *

In Canterlot castle, the equally sunny day provided the perfect opportunity to get a decent sunbath. Captain Arbiter had taken advantage of this by requesting that he be stationed at the front gate of the castle, in a short battlement that he frequently stood over to watch visitors come and go from the huge estate. He had a green lawn chair set up on top of the white stone, which reflected the sun's rays back on him, warming him up. He wore dark black sunglasses over his face, covering most of his eyepatch and hiding his scar. Of course, the other guards around him on the walls had taken their helmets off, and were wearing their own pairs of sunglasses to help brave the heat and sun.

"If only we could get a couple glasses of ice water up here." He mumbled, hating how much he was sweating over the scorching day.

Suddenly, a bright and loud flash of purple light appeared in front of the gate, making the guards nearly leap in the air, and causing Arbiter to jump in his lawn chair, accidentally flipping the latch keeping the chair up. It collapsed with a heavy thud, and Arbiter fell down onto the hard stone with a grunt as his sunglasses flew off his face and fell off of the stone wall.

Twilight and company had successfully teleported in, and stood right in front of the gate. Typically they appeared either directly in the castle or from farther away in the town, but Twilight had specifically wanted to find Captain Arbiter first, since his military knowledge might be needed in order to come up with the perfect strategy for stopping the changelings and getting Razor back in one piece.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy flanked her, with the colts close behind them. The sunglasses fell down and landed perfectly on Pinkie Pie's face, who accepted the shades eagerly and grinned at her friends, celebrating her luck in catching the refreshing eyewear. Fluttershy couldn't help but laugh gently at the event.

The now grumpy Captain stuck a hoof over the wall providing a safety edge on the battlements, and looked over the structure down at Twilight.

"Twilight Sparkle!" He said angrily, "Would you mind not doing that, please? You nearly made my stallions sound the alarm."

"Sorry Arby." Said Pinkie Pie, butting in front of Twilight, "But this is really really important! We need to see the princesses right away, and we need your help too!"

"Why do you need my help?" He asked, somewhat confused.

Twilight answered his question, "One of our friends has been captured by Queen Chrysalis, and we need your help coming up with a plan to get him out."

"A mission against the Queen's army?" He asked.

Techorse explained, "Razor, if you remember him, is being held hostage. The changelings attempting to separate from Chrysalis are being told to re-join the kingdom, or they'll hurt him. They'll also hurt him if they see anyone related to the attack at Canterlot showing up on the scene."

"Come on inside, we'll discuss this further in the air conditioning." He suggested, moving for the gate switch.

He then remembered something, "Oh, and, Miss Pie, any chance of me getting my sunglasses back?"

"Of course, Arby!" She giggled, taking off the eyewear.

* * *

The team assembled before Princess Celestia at her throne to try and explain the situation to her. Nectar had finally arrived after having checked in with her fellow changelings back at Razor's colony, and had entered the castle grounds after receiving approval, albeit reluctantly, from Captain Arbiter to enter. She entered the throne room cautiously, still a little nervous due to all the nasty looks she had been getting from the guards, still rather bitter over the earlier changeling attack. When she entered the throne room, the princess looked up from Twilight and Techorse and turned her attention to the new guest.

"Are you Nectar?" She asked.

The timid changeling nodded her head and shuffled, wings folded, over to the front of the room.

"There isn't anything to be afraid of." Said Princess Celestia calmly, "The residents of Equestria and I are pleased with your friend Razor's decision to break away from Chrysalis and start a new changeling nation. That's why we want to help you save Razor and take back your colony."

"I appreciate this very much, your majesty!" She answered, bowing gracefully, "None of us deserve help."

The princess smiled at Nectar, "But you've certainly earned it, I hear reports from time to time of helpful changelings seeking honest work. You've done a great job learning to enter society and get what you need without stealing it."

"But it could all be over if we don't put a stop to Chrysalis." Interrupted Arbiter, "Which is why I need a commitment of troops. We're going to take Razor back and show the Queen we mean business."

"But we can't!" Protested Twilight, glaring at him, "She's told the changeling colony that if anyone she recognizes comes within a short distance of their camp, she'll squish Razor."

"If you recall, Twilight." Argued Arbiter, "I received my post as Captain after the attack. She won't recognize me and a detachment of guards who aren't dressed in the royal armor."

"Still, to be on the safe side, it is best we try to rescue Razor without causing any harm." Suggested Celestia, trying to steer Arbiter away from thoughts of violence.

"We're volunteering to rescue him ourselves." Stated Techorse, pointing to Steiner and Shadow Breeze, "Chrysalis hasn't seen any of us, and working together we can easily get Razor out of the camp without causing too much trouble."

"That's dangerous!" Gasped Pinkie Pie, "We just gotta stick together as a team! Maybe there's a way we can distract the Queen so she doesn't mush Razor, and then somepony can nab him!"

"I agree." Added Twilight, "It's not that I don't think the boys can handle themselves, it's that it's stupid to expect the three of them to take on the changelings like this."

Princess Celestia understood the dilemma facing her subjects. One possible solution was to allow Techorse's "commando" idea to go through, but if that failed, they would need to be rescued as well. Of course, she didn't want to see what Arbiter was capable of doing with her guards if she chose to take the more direct approach. Sending Twilight and her friends in all at once might mean Razor got crushed before they could even reach him, and simply giving up and surrendering the good changelings to Chrysalis wasn't a choice. It was a very tough answer, but her duty was to come up with a decision in a situation like this, and the Princess of the Sun had made her choice.

"Let's give Techorse a chance, Twilight Sparkle." She said, "I will send a Pegasus scout from Cloudsdale, whom the changelings haven't seen yet, to monitor their progress. If they get into trouble, we will go to confront Chrysalis ourselves."

"But m'am, you can't possibly mean you'd go to fight Chrysalis." Complained Arbiter, stomping his hoof firmly into the stone floor, "Not without me, anyways."

"If it comes to it, I'll offer whatever assistance I can." She replied sternly, "I am expected to aid my citizens wherever I can, and if that means taking a risk to solve the changeling threat, I will do so."

Twilight frowned and looked sadly at Fluttershy, who also seemed rather upset. It seemed like a more diplomatic approach to the situation would have been more favorable, but Arbiter and Celestia were sure that there'd be no way to appease Chrysalis short of caving in to whatever she demanded. Perhaps peace was impossible.

"Sorry girls." Whispered Twilight as the princess continued to lecture Arbiter, "I was hoping that we'd be able to trade Chrysalis something for Razor's release."

"I don't think there would have been any way to get that meanie to cooperate!" Answered Pinkie Pie, maintaining a harsh whisper, "A million cookies would be a good trade, but she's too mean!"

Nectar spoke up at this point, trying not to be rude to Princess Celestia but still wanting to make a point, "I will take Techorse and his friends to our colony so they can make the trip to the enemy camp. I gave your Captain a map showing where it is located so you can send your scout over."

"Very well." Said Celestia, "With any luck, we'll have Razor back by the end of today."

Techorse looked at his friends with determination, knowing that they'd be able to live up to that expectation.

* * *

They were issued free train tickets to an eastern part of the country where the new colony was set up in a crystalline cave, itself a few miles from a moderate sized town called Hoofington. The train pulled into the station in the suburban community, where the female changeling was greeted by a few of the ponies walking around on the outdoor wooden platform.

"Hi Nectar!" One of them called out, a tan colt with a few silver nails for a cutie mark, "I have that order of oak wood and building supplies ready for you to pick up!"

"Thanks!" She answered, "But I don't suppose you've heard the bad news yet."

"No I haven't!" Answered the concerned carpentry supplies sales pony, "What's wrong?"

"Razor has been taken by Queen Chrysalis. Our town's not been able to do much of anything out of fear and panic that we might lose our founder." She explained as Techorse and his friends exited the train, "Luckily, these three stallions from Ponyville have volunteered to rescue him."

The carpenter looked behind the changeling at the three ponies, and raised an eyebrow, "These three? Are going to take on the entire hive?"

"We're hoping to solve it diplomatically." Said Shadow Breeze, a little angry that he was passively being called weak, "I want to be able to offer a treaty between Razor's colony and Chrysalis's hive."

"Good luck with that. After all the damage in Canterlot I was paid tons of bits to help fix, I doubt they'll listen. Just try not to end up in the hospital, ok?"

Steiner grunted, "Perhaps you'd like a soda?"

Steiner opened his bright blue saddlebags with his magic, and lifted a small purple can of liquid out.

Techorse knew what he was up to and pushed the bottle back into he bag with his robotic arms, "Steiner, we can't go around giving away free sodas, folks will think we're creepy."

"Well I can't accept free drinks anyways." He said, "My name's Founder, by the way, own a huge lumber shop on the other side of town. Since the changelings are my biggest customers right now, you get Razor back and I'll get you a nice patio installed at your homes, ok?"

"That's a nice offer, Founder," said Nectar hurriedly, "I may just have to hold you to it. Now, if you'll excuse us, I have to get these stallions started on their mission. We don't have much time."

"All right, take care now, and good luck!" He answered, waving to the four as they left the train station.

* * *

Razor's colony was located about three miles of a walk from town, up the side of a nearby hill outside of the city. A brown dirt path against the green grass of the hilly countryside wound its way up the incline, and eventually leveled off in front of a large opening in the side of the hill, which led inside the underground of the grassy mountain.

"You live in a cave?" Asked Shadow Breeze, frowning, "That sounds pretty depressing."

"Changelings like cool and misty places, and caves are perfect for that." Explained Nectar, leading them down into the mouth of the cavern, "Of course, we do touch up the inside of the caverns we live in with our own houses and decorations. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised!"

The path down through the cavern system was a cold and damp tunnel filled with small light blue crystals of various minerals, eventually leading to a large opening that was flooded with light from some kind of artificial source. When the three ponies stepped out into the main opening of the cave, they looked around in awe at what they could see.

The large, open cavern room featured several large crystal structures along the walls, many of them supporting a small home, a wood house of changeling design, round with several windows and a door at the base. Each one had a staircase leading down to the floor of the cave, which was lined with small amounts of glistening shards from the fragmenting crystals, each thousands of years old. Changeling males and females buzzed about overhead, entering and leaving their homes to go seek work in the outside world. A hole in the ceiling of the cave system, with a large metal cover underneath that could be fitted over it in case of a storm, allowed the changelings to exit the cave vertically, and re-enter horizontally through the tunnel Techorse and his friends had entered through. A large subterranean river, flowing fresh from underground springs from the water table, brought fresh and cold drinkable water to the changeling community. The spring itself, located in the center of the cave, flowed and made a gentle sound like a natural fountain, adding further to the beauty of the environment.

Nectar noticed the mouths of her new friends hanging open and giggled, "I told you!"

Roughly eighty changelings lived in the community, of which 4 were newborns, the first to be born out from under the control of Queen Chrysalis. Nectar led them to her home and opened the rounded wood door carefully with her porous leg. She ushered the ponies inside, who explored her simple two-floor home.

Each house seemed to have a small bedroom and bathroom upstairs, and a kitchen and living area underneath, like a large apartment. Changelings preferred to live this way, as they did not spend much time in their personal living spaces like ponies do, but instead went out to enjoy the company of the rest of the hive. Constant socialization was how their species had advanced to compete with the ponies, and it was only in recent years that they had turned to more sinister ways of obtaining the emotional energy they needed to properly metabolize their food and survive.

Nectar's first floor of her home featured a nice set of furniture, a couch, a beautiful dining table with four places for guests, topped with a beautiful floral print tablecloth in a light blue base color. A few pictures of her family hung on the walls, and there was also a space for a stove in the back where she might prepare food if she didn't want to eat communally with the other changelings. Although there wasn't much space for anything else, making it a rather plain yet cozy place to live, there was still enough room for the ponies to sit around the dinner table and discuss their plan for bringing Razor back in one piece.

Techorse couldn't help but compliment what he had just seen, "Nectar, your home is amazing! How did you all ever build this place?"

"Yeah, surely it had to cost a lot of money." Mentioned Steiner, who was met by a nasty look from Techorse about talking about the price.

Nectar answered cheerfully, "Well, when the ponies from Canterlot heard there were changelings who wanted to behave themselves, they started giving us donations to build a new home. Guess they wanted to support us stopping our kind from having to go on raids for our love."

"Seems they were very generous!" Smiled Shadow Breeze, "I'm sure this is a much better home than what Queen Chrysalis had for you all."

"Very much so." Nodded Nectar, her wings vibrating slightly as she remembered the conditions, "We didn't have enough materials to build our own homes, and so more and more of it was held together with our glue."

"Glue?" Asked a puzzled Techorse.

"We have two glue glands under our tongues. The green goop hardens into a super tough shell after a few hours. It's how we create the cocoons Chrysalis and her followers enjoyed trapping her victims in for easy feeding."

"Stop!" Begged Steiner, putting a hoof to his mouth, "I think I'm going to be sick!"

"Well don't worry, we didn't use a drop of it making this place, we had plenty of nails and other supplies for sticking thanks to your kindhearted citizens." She answered, frowning, "It's just a shame that we might lose it all."

"We won't let that happen." Assured Techorse, "Now where is Queen Chrysalis?"

Nectar went and retrieved a large paper map from a nearby shelf, and unrolled it on the table. The three friends leaned in and saw a large illustration of the local area outside of Hoofington. Nectar's scythe-like horn glowed, and a few green dots of energy appeared on the map. The first dot turned red, highlighting a small circle on the forested hills outside the town.

"We're here." She said, pointing to the red dot, "Queen Chrysalis's camp is located ten miles away, here."

She shifted the red dot over to a small cave system drawn over another area of the map.

"Also, there's a swamp located here just a half of a mile from the smaller cave she's camping in with her troops. It's a good way to know that you're going in the right direction. Princess Celestia told me before we left that her scout will be meeting you there." She finished.

"So we'll head for the swamp, get our information, and get Razor out safely." Stated Techorse.

"Hopefully without causing too much trouble." Hoped Shadow Breeze, not eager to get into a fight.

"Oh come on, we can take those bugs!" Assured Steiner.

Nectar looked rather hurt by the degrading comment, and Steiner blushed as he realized what he had just done.

"I'm very sorry about that. It's just, after what the Queen did to Canterlot." He said, trying to make up for his insulting comment.

"We're trying our best to do good and break away from the Queen." Sighed Nectar, "But I guess we're still pretty hated by you ponies."

"I don't know if that's true." Soothed Shadow Breeze, "You seem to be getting pretty positive reviews from the ponies in Hoofington. Maybe it'll just take a little more time for Equestria to get used to you being on our side."

"If we give up today, we'll be forced into doing evil things again." She said, trying not to get too upset, "I don't want to go back to that. The poor looks on those ponies' faces after we got what we wanted, and then we just dumped them back in their town, depressed and exhausted from it!"

"We'll stop this plan, promise!" Said Steiner, standing up from the table, "Right?"

"That's right, Steiner." Added Techorse, drawing his laser cannons out of his saddle, "We're going to make sure the changelings here can choose to live how they want to, honestly and without heavy hearts!"

Nectar led them out of her home, and the three stallions were met by the other changelings of the hive forming two lines towards the exit of their cave.

"Good luck!" Some of them cried, "Bring Razor back!"

* * *

The three friends felt uplifted, not only by the support, but the knowledge that someday maybe changelings would be fully accepted into Equestrian society, and the planet would enjoy even more peace than it already did. As they walked past the changelings, many alike, but each unique in some way, they realized that they had a lot in common with this other sapient species. The light on the other end of the entrance cave shone, and the three exited out into the daylight again, ready to bring back their friend, and help to secure the future.

But as they began their walk for the swamp, a less than cheerful changeling male watched from above the cave entrance. His eyes, a strange yellow in color, tracked the three as they walked away unaware of him. The spy drew a tongue over his left fang, eager to draw the emotional energy from his victims and watch their pain as they descended into sadness and emotionless slump.

"Soon enough." He thought to himself, laughing only in his head, "First, to let the Queen know that our guests will be arriving shortly."

Once the intruder was sure that the ponies were well out of earshot, he spread his four-part wings and buzzed off into the air to go tell Chrysalis about the small party headed for her camp on the other side of the forested hills. If they played their cards right, the Queen's changelings new that they'd have more than just one captive to make the Equestrians squirm.

And that might just be enough of a bargaining chip to get them to turn over some daily love for them.

To be continued


	2. Chapter 2

Three Mane Team – Part II

Techorse series: #31

By Spirals95

* * *

In a cave system a few miles away from where Techorse and his friends left to meet with their pegasus contact, the spying changeling eagerly flew through the tunnel system looking for the camp. He followed the trails left behind by the other changelings deep into the center of the mountain they were based in, and entered a jagged section of the cavern where his hive had set up their temporary quarters. Green dome-shaped homes, some still dripping from being freshly added to glowed softly with yellow candle light, each one a small temporary house for each changeling family under Queen Chrysalis. She herself had built a large structure at the back of the cavern with multiple domes, five in total, forming a pentagonal temporary castle. It wasn't her home castle, but it was a suitable home until she could return back to her original kingdom.

Her agent pushed through a pliable flap on the front of the building, and went through a small ribbed entrance constructed out of wood, stone, and changeling goo, until he came to the makeshift throne room.

Queen Chrysalis sat on her throne, a large almost sofa-like structure made of red cushions and obsidian stone, giving it a blackish glow to match her body and slender legs. She welcomed her returning scout with a grin on her face.

"Tell me Cloak, what has our trap brought in?" she asked, standing up from her throne and walking over to her servant, who bowed before her.

"Your majesty, three ponies have been sent to rescue Razor." He answered, "As you expected, they are fully capable of defending themselves from what I could tell. They may be specialists sent by Princess Celestia, or simply wanderers given mercenary work to get Razor back from us."

Queen Chrysalis beat her wings gently, "Very good. Send a detachment of troops to the southern part of the plains in front of our mountain. With any luck, they'll fall for our tricks, and we'll be able to simply bring them in, and let Razor go."

"Let him go!" shouted a shocked Cloak, standing up, "But why?"

"The Equestrians are known for being a loving species, which is why they are such easy creatures to feed off of." Explained the queen, "My runaway children, Razor included, have started to believe that this means they could care more for them than I could. I can't stand the thought of my children leaving me. I have a duty to them!"

"I apologize for my arrogance, but I don't see how letting him go after we're through with them is going to help get back the lost ones." Argued the changeling, rather upset about the plan making no sense to him.

Chrysalis seemed about to lose her patience, but simply grunted and continued, "You weren't paying attention when we left the main hive then, were you? If we capture some ponies, and indeed my lost ones have grown soft to them, they'll come back on promise that we do not harm them."

"Ah, so we trap the party, and then trade them back for our own!" He said, smirking as he understood what she meant.

She smiled with fangs exposed at him, "We will have our lost ones back soon enough. Go rally up with the others, and fly to the meeting point. Prepare to welcome our new guests."

"Yes m'am!" he responded, turning around and exiting the throne room as fast as his porous legs could carry him.

The Queen looked in the direction of a nearby door, her attention now on her now dry throat, and decided to call for a drink, "I'm still waiting on that drink, Rusty!"

Rusty, her faithful servant and perhaps her only real friend in the traditional sense, emerged from the door with a small silver chalice of peach nectar from the makeshift kitchen. The small male changeling had yellow eyes, making him stand out slightly from the others, and he wore a small blue hat with a red feather attached to the left side. He brought the small fine cup to his queen, and gave it to her, using the limited amount of magic his small pointed horn allowed him. Queen Chrysalis drained the sweet fluid in seconds, and then set the cup down on one of the arms of her temporary throne.

"Ah, thank you. Sometimes I believe you're the only one who listens, Rusty." She said, sighing in relief of her throat ailment.

"I try my best." He answered, "I look forward to seeing our new 'guests'. I have a surprise for them, and you, once we've brought them in."

The servant laughed at his own plans, and Chrysalis couldn't help but slightly smile in anticipation of finding out what her servant had for her.

"A gift, for me?" she asked, a sinister grin spreading across her face.

Rusty nodded and chortled, "I'm sure you'll find it quite satisfying, my liege."

* * *

Techorse and his friends had reached the swamp described by Nectar. The small bog, covering only a few acres on each side was teeming with chirping insect life, bullfrogs calling out for companionship, and many cattails in standing mud and water. Occasionally a fish would leap out of the cleaner parts of the swamp water to grab at a passing insect in hopes of a catch. A few boulders that had broken off from the mountains and rolled downhill decades ago rested, either covered with moss or baked dry in the sun overhead.

The pegasus scout Princess Celestia had ordered to inspect Chrysalis's encampment was sitting on a small rock in the shade of one of the few trees in the local area. The ominous mountains sat behind him where the changelings were currently hidden. He was a rather wiry light orange stallion with green eyes, a trim blue mane cut, and three pairs of binoculars for a cutie mark.

"Great, you're here!" He said, jumping off of the rock and hovering in the air by flapping his wings, "Queen Chrysalis's camp is inside that mountain behind me. There's only one entrance, but there's multiple tunnels leading throughout that cave system. All of them eventually lead to the camp, but that's all I was able to find out without being caught. You'll have to figure out for yourselves how to get Razor out of there."

"Any idea how many of them there are?" asked Techorse, making eye contact.

"Probably more than two hundred. Many of them aren't soldiers though, I counted a lot of workers and servants." Answered the scout, "But I'd be careful anyways."

"We will, don't worry." Assured the inventor, "We plan on trying to settle this peacefully if possible. "

"I don't see how you can do that, but I'll be hoping for it anyways!" he replied with doubt in his voice, "Anyways, that's the end of my job here. Good luck!"

With that, the pegasus left them alone, soaring off into the sky to head back for his home in Cloudsdale.

"Didn't really give us much information." Complained Steiner, scuffing a hoof on the ground.

Shadow Breeze shook his tail gently and twisted his head towards Techorse, "It's all right, really. Since we're going to try to reason with them first, we don't need an alternate path into their hive."

The amulet fastened around his neck by a small gold chain shot a ray of darkness onto the ground, projecting a shadow display of the local area. Shadow Breeze's friends looked at the diagram the pegasus had projected onto the ground.

"All we have to do is follow the mountain trail into this valley." He said, a dotted line of shadows beginning to form on the map.

"Once we're here in the valley, we can try to send a message along asking to trade Razor's return in exchange for money or resources."

"What happens if they reject?" asked Steiner, scowling and cynical, "I suppose we convince them otherwise?"

"Steiner, we're only using our weapons to protect ourselves if we have to. This isn't a game!" said Techorse sternly, "It's just not right to do things by force. Honestly Steiner, I don't know what's been going on, but you've been rather irritable ever since we've started out on this mission. Normally you're pretty welcoming, so what's wrong?"

The soda store owner pushed some of his striped mane out of the way of his eyes, "My father was in Canterlot during the Changeling invasion. One of them broke his leg by sending him down a flight of stairs. Sure, he recovered, but seeing my own parent helpless in bed? I could never forgive that!"

He sighed, and then continued, "Nectar has helped me to see that I need to go on a case by case basis with everypony, and even the ones who aren't ponies. It's just tough for me."

"Well, I understand." Interrupted Shadow Breeze, "It's hard to see a loved one get put in the hospital and not be mad at the party responsible. I could see why you would want to get back at them."

"I know, but you studying diplomacy, you would suggest I sue the changelings for medical damages, right?" he replied, teasing Shadow Breeze.

The graphite colored pegasus raised an eyebrow and shoved Steiner playfully with his front left hoof. It was surprising that Steiner seemed to be lightening up, at first it felt like he didn't like him at all, and now the reason for his mean behavior had been revealed to him. Maybe he would be able to be get along better with him and not simply share Techorse as a mutual friend.

"Now, what happens if we mess up?" asked Steiner, "I'm assuming we have a backup plan, right?"

Techorse nodded, "Remember? I told Twilight before we left that I had put a homing device in my saddle. If something goes wrong, or if the battle saddle gets destroyed, it'll send out an emergency beacon which will be picked up by a tiny radio I gave her. Twilight and the Princess both trust that we can handle ourselves, but I made sure we had something to fall back on."

"Great! Then let's head for the valley and get started." Suggested Shadow Breeze, pointing to the mountain with a wing.

They left the swamp and headed for the valley described by the scout. Diplomacy was still an option if they were able to wait for a small number of changelings to come along.

* * *

A large, calm river flowed the past the valley of the small mountain range the team had been sent to explore. The body of water meandered through the hillside, leaving in its wake oxbow lakes and other isolated ponds. It eventually emptied out into the swamp the three stallions had left earlier, and its source was a larger lake high up in the mountains where there was a small shipyard. The river forked past the hill where Queen Chrysalis and her troops camped, and eventually drained out into the east sea.

The valley itself was a somewhat sparse area, although lush green grass grew along the bank of the river, stones and somewhat less healthy vegetation covered the land to the west, up until the mountain ridge where the occasional cliff dwelling tree or flower made its home. The rocks were large enough to provide perfect cover for someone as small as an Equestrian, and Techorse and company took shelter behind a larger boulder, waiting to see if any of the changelings would pass by without too many allies.

"Do you think they'll even come here?" whispered Shadow Breeze, a little bit of fear in his eyes.

"Of course. This is the easiest way to get water, and they likely make a few runs each day." Confirmed Techorse, looking around the edge of the giant grey stone.

"So what do we do?" asked Steiner impatiently.

"When they get here, we negotiate out an agreement." Explained Shadow Breeze, "I'm sure they'll accept something for Razor's return."

"That's an incredibly stupid idea!" exclaimed Steiner, "You honestly expect me to believe they'll cooperate?"

"Stop fighting!" declared Techorse, "I see one coming."

The three huddled together behind the rock as they heard a single set of wings come to a buzzing rest, and the soft footsteps of a changeling trooper walking around in the valley. He was humming some kind of a tune to himself, clearly of his own kind's origin as none of the ponies could identify it. Eventually he walked past the stone, and pretended that he did not see any of the team members.

"Um, excuse me!" piped up Shadow Breeze.

Cloak, who had followed them earlier, turned his head quickly and fell over on the ground, putting on a great act of being startled.

He stood up as fast as he had fallen to the ground, and said, "Ah, you startled me!"

"Sorry." Said Shadow Breeze, "We're diplomats from Canterlot. We wanted to negotiate the release of Razor."

"Very well!" he answered, "Of course I need to know what's in it for us."

Shadow Breeze opened up his grey saddlebags and took out a small scroll. A small beam of shadow energy came out of his amulet and gently floated the paper over to the spy, who stomped on the paper with a perforated leg and started to scan it over quickly with his cyan colored eyes.

"Hmm, let's see. Rights to sell goods in Equestria, raw gold and silver. These are all very good offers, ponies, but of course I can't accept them myself. The Queen will need to see this." Cloak said, rolling up the scroll and kicking it back towards Shadow Breeze, who recollected the now dusty offer.

Techorse looked behind the rock, making sure that there weren't any other changelings in the area.

"Then we'll just follow you back." Said Shadow Breeze.

The spy noticed Techorse's look behind and said, "As you can see, we're a reasonable hive. I assure you that Razor's capture was simply a big misunderstanding. Come with me and we'll see what can be done."

Steiner thought about saying something, since the whole situation seemed weird, but he didn't want to be called out anymore on being rude, so he kept his mouth closed and his ears attentive. When his friends left to go follow the changeling back to the hive, he carefully looked around.

Eventually, the changeling turned around and stopped the part in its tracks.

"You know something?" he said rhetorically, "I honestly believed better of you. Trust is never something a changeling fails to take advantage of. I'm surprised you never saw that in Razor."

Roughly two dozen changelings arrived on the scene. Six of them joined their leader Cloak at the front, and the remainder behind to cut off escape.

"I knew it!" shouted Steiner.

Techorse muttered, "Of course. I can't believe we fell for this."

Shadow Breeze complained, "Hey! Wait a minute! We're diplomats. You can't do this to us!"

"Can't we?" laughed Cloak darkly.

The changelings were closing in. Some of them were engulfed in green flashes of light as they disguised themselves as Techorse and his friends. But that's when Techorse noticed something about the changelings. They could take on the image, form, and even what they were wearing on as a disguise, but it was unlikely that they were able to copy attacks. A few of the changelings did not disguise themselves so as to make use of their magic projectile attacks. Their small stubby horns glowed, charging up for a shot.

"Looks like this is unavoidable." He said as his friends backed up into a circle, "Look for the ones that don't have a saddle gadget out, a glowing amulet, or chucking sodas."

"Right." Said Steiner, dropping into a battle position, his head down and his legs spread out. He scraped a hoof on the ground fiercely.

The changelings charged towards the middle, firing magic blasts and rushing in to sow confusion amongst the three. Techorse immediately opened fire with his laser cannons, sending yellow bolts of energy down the range. One of the changelings disguised as Steiner was not expecting the attack, and suffered a burst of laser fire, burning his outside and sending him flying backwards as the energy projectiles exploded on him. Techorse's cannons retracted back into his saddle as he switched rapidly to his missile launcher, and then with a mental flicker, a pair of rockets left the racks at his sides and streamed forward. The changelings did not know what to make of the projectiles, and the two impacted together in front of three of them, scattering them like dry leaves.

One of the magic bolts managed to hit Techorse in the back leg, toppling him as he screamed. Steiner turned around and faced the changeling that had caused the injury, his small horn still smoking from the shot. The unicorn pony took out an orange can of soda and shook it up rapidly with his horn, thousands of micro vibrations per second agitated the soda, which was intentionally over-carbonated. The can swelled slightly from the building pressure, and then Steiner launched it with a magic toss. It hit the ground in front of the changeling, and the impact caused the seal on the can to burst. An orange flavored explosion consumed the hapless the changeling and tossed him to the ground furiously.

By now the ponies were caught in a furious melee with their enemies, as they had overtaken them. Techorse delivered a fierce punch with his robotic fists into a changeling's side, knocking him down just as another one pounced him from behind. Shadow Breeze's amulet fired off a ball of energy, which rolled along the ground, sparking with intent as it made its way into an attacking group and exploded with a sharp bang, sending two more of the enemy flying like they were thrown toys.

"Woah, I didn't know you could do that!" awed Techorse, looking at the tiny crater left by the blast.

"Yeah, it's what happens when I discharge all of my amulet's energy at once. I call it the shadow grenade." He said, smirking.

Techorse ducked a swing from a changeling's leg and returned fire with a blast from his lasers.

"Let's fall back to the rocks!" shouted Steiner over the sounds of blasts, "We'll be able to fight hem on our own terms!"

The three friends ran away, through the gap in the enemy's ranks left by the shadow grenade. The changelings who weren't unconscious, roughly 18, followed them back into the rock field.

As they retreated, Techorse activated his homing beacon. He knew that there was no way he or his friends were going to evade capture. If the signal made it through to Twilight though, there was a chance she could come up with a plan to help save them and Razor too.

* * *

The small radio started to beep loudly, and Twilight's ears drooped as she picked up the device from a small table in the throne room.

"Oh no." she said sadly, "Techorse activated the homing beacon. Something's happened."

"What? What's happened!" demanded Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down next to Twilight.

The radio device displayed a small message in red letters across its screen:

"We're under attack. Too many of them. Will be captured. Send help."

"The boys have run into trouble." Stated Twilight, "It looks like the option for peace is out the window now."

"So to war it is!" said Arbiter, bearing his teeth, "Let's get the guards outfitted with their armor, spears and swords. We'll get Razor back, one way or another."

Twilight really didn't want to see that kind of a terrible thing happening to Equestria, and the look on Princess Celestia's face indicated that too. They stared at each other for a few seconds to try and formulate a plan that would avoid terrible conflict.

Pinkie Pie, however, had a small splinter of inspiration in her mind. It was a very sneaky, silly idea. But it might be something that would both avoid a war, and rescue their friends, while at the same time providing Arbiter a chance to defend them if necessary.

"I've got an idea!" she announced cheerfully, giving the other ponies in a room a broad smile, "But we're gonna need Rarity for this one! It's a really good secret mission!"

"What did you have in mind, Pinkie Pie?" asked a curious Princess Celestia.

The pink colored mare jittered with excitement, and then laid out her plan in great detail. As Arbiter listened, his eyes widened in surprise at just how intricate and tactical, yet completely idiotic the plan was. Still, Pinkie Pie's idea would mean very little risk to the stallions under his leadership, and he owed it to them and their families to carry through with Pinkie's plan.

* * *

Techorse heard his last reload spin into place, the final two missiles out of ten he had stocked in his saddle. Fifteen minutes of fighting had resulted in a destroyed laser cannon, several burns from the changeling's magic blast, and a saddle that threatened to overheat at any time. He fired the last pair of rockets, which narrowly missed one of the six remaining changelings. His other friends were running out supplies too, Steiner was out of sodas, and Shadow Breeze's amulet was failing to hold enough of a charge to launch a shadow grenade.

Two of the still fighting changelings opened their mouths and lifted their forked tongues. A pair of streams of green goop shot out from tubes underneath their tongues, emptying themselves onto poor Steiner. The unicorn was glued firmly to the ground, green slime sticking to his legs and coat.

"Euuuuugh!" he cried, disgusted by what the changelings had done to him.

Shadow Breeze flapped his wings, and flew high up into the air, before dropping himself down on one of the spitting foes. In response, another one of the changelings to the right spat the contents of his goop glands all over Shadow Breeze, kicking him over and cementing him in place. Techorse attempted to resist the tactic with his remaining laser cannon, but a magical blast blew off the other metal barrel before he could even get off a shot. The spy brushed a wisp of smoke from his own horn, and then promptly spewed his goop on the inventor.

Soon reinforcements arrived, and they in turn finished what the spy and his team had started. Techorse and his friends found themselves cocooned, and were carried off along with the injured changelings back into the hive. They said nothing, figuring their small prisons could not allow sound to escape, as no light could enter the dried goop had been piled up so thick.

* * *

A small eternity seemed to pass for Techorse until he began to see a small fissure appear in the wall of the structure he was trapped inside of. The container was being opened by its own power, apparently the structure was only a temporary prison.

Shadow Breeze squinted as his eyes tried to adjust to the lights inside the hive. He and his friends had been stuck in some kind of prison cell based on the metal bars in front of him, but the rest of the room just appeared to be a reddish stone, a clue that iron composed a lot of the mountain. The three collected themselves and let their eyes fully adjust to the light before they started talking to each other, rather glum about their being captured.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about all this." Said Shadow Breeze sadly, "I just wanted this to be peaceful. Now we're going to have horrible things done to us!"

Steiner nodded, "Chrysalis is going to pick something horrible for us, I just know it. But what will it be?"

"She'll probably make us into pony salad sandwiches!" cried Shadow Breeze.

Steiner added, "Or turn us into matching designer hoofbags!"

"Guys, relax!" laughed Techorse, "Changelings are herbivores just like us, Shadow. And could you even imagine Queen Chrysalis with a purse, Steiner?"

"I guess that is a bit silly." Giggled the stallion, "Guess we're all still a bit scared."

Techorse admitted, "Me too."

The bars on the small prison cell were grinding open slowly, and a changeling appeared before them, keys still on his left leg. It was rusty, who dropped the key ring to the ground and allowed the three ponies to exit the cell. They were surprised at their sudden release by this unknown visitor, but Shadow Breeze accepted the token.

"Thanks for letting us out." He said to Rusty.

The other two ponies shook their tails out of the leftover dried goop crusted on them. They then turned their attentions to Rusty and noted that they hadn't seen him before.

"You're quite welcome." Answered the servant to Shadow Breeze, "My name is Rusty. I am Queen Chrysalis' servant and housekeeper."

"So you're the butler?" asked Steiner.

"I guess you could call it that, but I'm more of a trusted advisor." He explained with a noticeably happy tone, "The Queen frequently tells me everything."

Steiner, however, noticed that the cell door was still open. He didn't waste any time, and immediately pounced on Rusty, his hat falling off his head. A tan hoof was raised to strike.

"Wait! Stop!" the mortified servant begged, "Please don't hurt me, I just want to talk!"

"Steiner, he came alone and released all of us." Said Techorse desperately, "He outnumbered himself on purpose to try and gain a little trust."

"But we can't trust them, remember what that one said earlier?" reminded Steiner, sarcasm in his voice.

"Cloak is not as understanding as I am!" panicked Rusty, "I swear I'm telling the truth, please! I want to see Razor let go, maybe for a different reason than you ponies, but still…"

Steiner got off of Rusty, and the changeling carefully put his hat back on and stood up.

"All right." Said Techorse, "Tell us why you want to help us."

"Well, you see, Queen Chrysalis isn't exactly the original queen of this hive." He said, still shaky from the scare Steiner had given him, "A long time ago, a different king and queen ruled our hive, and they were terrible to their subjects. Often we went cold or hungry. Queen Chrysalis started as the daughter of a pair of changelings who had gotten fed up with the old king and queen's rule, and decided to break the ultimate rule."

"What's the 'ultimate rule'?" asked Shadow Breeze, tilting his head in confusion.

Rusty swallowed hard and continued, "Changeling kings and queens, as you might notice, are larger and stronger than an ordinary changeling. To become that, they are fed a concoction of chemicals made from flowers from a hooful of ancient sites known only to us. This special thick potion is called royal jelly, and it's highly illegal to make it if you're not the king or queen. This is how the royal family continues its line, by feeding their offspring royal jelly generation after generation!"

"So it's a mutagen." Mused Techorse, putting a hoof to his chin in thought.

"Muta-what?" asked Rusty.

"A mutagen. It's a chemical that mutates living things' DNA. Changelings must have their DNA mutated in order to grow as large as Chrysalis has." He explained, "So I'm guessing that her parents must have snuck her out to the flower fields and fed her the jelly!"

"Exactly." Nodded Rusty, "Soon Chrysalis grew big and strong, and ousted the tyrannical king and queen. But, before she defeated them, the old king and queen zapped her parents with some kind of magic that transported them to an unknown area in the world. Chrysalis searched for years but could never find her mom or dad. So she treats us like family, caring for us and trying to fill our needs for love and food."

Steiner's ears sank back, and his eyes fell in pity.

"That's quite sad." He admitted.

"You have to understand that Chrysalis is only looking out for our best interests." He said, "I care about her very much, in fact, I may be her only true friend. "

"Even so, ponies don't like getting fed off of." Said Techorse.

"No offense, but you seemed like an easy target, and the Queen wanted more love available for us." Rusty explained.

"I can't necessarily blame you. You need that emotional energy to process your food and survive." Techorse continued, "But Razor's idea is to simply have you earn it rather than rip it away from us. It's less damaging to both parties."

"I know that." Grunted Rusty, "But my Queen does not know that. She's hurt, and she's willing to do anything to care for us while satisfying that pain from her parents being lost."

Shadow Breeze smiled as he understood and said, "So _that's _why you wanted to help. You believe we can help you explain that to Chrysalis, so that she'll let Razor go."

"Well, no." said Rusty, laughing nervously, "See, there's this one little part that I don't think any of you will like, but is necessary for all this to work."

"What's that?" asked Shadow Breeze.

Rusty took a deep breath, and then let out the bad news, "Razor's model is to have us be willingly given our love and emotional energy, right?"

"Right…" trailed the three ponies, having a small clue as to where this was going.

"Well…" continued Rusty, "In order for this to work, you kind of have to let Queen Chrysalis feed off of you."

Shadow Breeze's eyes widened in terror, and he nearly fainted from the statement. Techorse felt his heart skip a beat, but soon it turned out to just be racing out of fear. Steiner's blood ran cold, knowing exactly what that meant.

"Wh-what?" he asked, shocked.

"Don't panic!" said Rusty, waving a right leg and frowning, hoping to calm down the ponies, "If you willingly give Chrysalis some love so she can eat today, it will prove to her that Razor was right and that his system works. Maybe then we can come to some kind of peace agreement."

The ponies were still mortified at the thought. They had seen some of the victims from the attack on Canterlot. They had gaunt faces, trembled in fear constantly, and had required weeks of therapy to return to normal. Even then they still felt as if they could never trust another pony until they had made dead sure they were actually a pony and not a changeling in disguise. The toll of being fed on was enormous if the subject was drained dry. Being unable to show love or happiness was costly to a pony, who absolutely needed those emotions to stay sane.

Shadow Breeze nonetheless, was a diplomat, and sometimes creating peace meant making a big sacrifice.

So he said to Rusty, "I'll do it."

His friends looked at him like he was crazy at first, but eventually realized there was no other way around it, and joined him.

Rusty led them out of the cell, and towards the throne room. As they walked through the halls, Techorse asked,

"Why didn't you join Razor's colony? You seem nice, Rusty."

He answered, "I honestly do care about Chrysalis. We knew each other growing up, and although everything changed when everything unfolded, I still want to be a friend to her."

Techorse nodded and knew Rusty was telling the truth.

* * *

When they entered the throne room, it had been changed significantly since the away team had left to capture the ponies. Decorative lamps and tables had been set up, filled with plates of fresh fruit and juice to drink in bright chalices. Queen Chrysalis got up from her seat and welcomed in her new guests.

"Ah, so you must be the three stallions I've been told about." She snickered, "I expected more out of Techorse, the supposed hero who defeated the Wizard. You managed to put several of my own in the medical room of the hive, but were beaten with just our goop."

"How did you know about me and Wizard?" demanded a shocked Techorse.

"Oh please." She answered, snarking, "When my soldiers reported a pony with a magic saddle, I remembered the stories from other ponies about a hero named Techorse. These must be your friends Steiner and Shadow Breeze."

"That's right your majesty." Answered Shadow Breeze.

"How polite." She mused, enjoying her success far too much.

"Um, ma'am, the ponies have something for you." He said, nudging Techorse who was between his two companions, "This is part two of your surprise. The fresh fruit was only a little piece."

"Do go on." She said, bearing her fangs.

"Well, Queen Chrysalis." Said Techorse, "We want to give you some emotional energy so you can enjoy that fruit."

"Hmmm?" she asked, teasing him with a little smile and a fluff of her turquoise hair.

"We want you to be able to feed off of us." Explained Shadow Breeze, "If you take just a little bit from each of us, it won't hurt us, and you'll be able to digest the food Rusty brought you."

Queen Chrysalis raised her long neck, and asked in surprise, "You're joking, right? No screaming or begging for mercy?"

"None." Said Steiner, trying not to grind his teeth.

"You see, Razor thinks all changelings could get their needs willingly from ponies. We're trying to prove that it's true by offering you some of ours for free." Explained Techorse.

"And you think I'm going to let him go just for one little feeding?" she answered, scoffing, "What sense does that make?"

Shadow Breeze began to get nervous again, and his heart pounded away in his chest as he saw Chrysalis bear her fangs. He was sure any second now she was going to sink them into his neck.

"You are my prisoners, and I plan on allowing you to go if and only if Razor and his followers come back to my hive." She said, "There will be no compromises or deals."

"Your majesty!" interrupted Rusty sharply, gaining her attention, "If you take their offer, it's more likely Razor's followers will come back. Keeping them here will only make them resist further. Don't you want them back?"

"I do." She said, calming down.

The changeling queen realized that Rusty was reminding her of her original plan, "I will feed on you three, as you offer. Then, I will send Razor out instead of you. He will go back to his camp and bring his followers back, and then I will release you."

"So you won't squish him?" asked Shadow Breeze.

"No. I will allow him back into our society. I care too much for my children." She answered, "Now come closer, and turn around."

The three ponies looked at each other nervously, but obeyed the command. Chrysalis bore her fangs, and then lightly clamped onto the back of each pony's neck. The teeth were far too blunt to pierce their skin, but when she grabbed onto them, her horn glowed as small amounts of energy left the ponies and entered her mouth. Soon she had gotten what she had wanted from all three of them, leaving them feeling slightly tired, but in very good shape. Chrysalis proceeded to dig into the oranges, grapes, and other assorted fruits given to her by Rusty. Once she had finished her meal, she felt far more energetic, and thankfully less cranky.

"That wasn't so bad." Sighed Techorse, "Couple of minutes and I'll be normal again."

"Define normal." Said Steiner.

"Let's uphold our end of the bargain." Stated Chrysalis, "Rusty, release Razor and give him his instructions."

Rusty nodded and moved over to a large green pod of goop in the corner of the throne room. Using a quick spell, he cleaved the surface of the pod, and a stunned Razor tumbled out. He slowly regained his footing from his temporary coma induced by being in the pod, and realized he was in front of Techorse.

"Techorse?" he asked, groggy, "You came for me?"

"Yeah," was his sleepy reply, "You're free now."

"I don't know what to say." He continued, touched that he was loved enough to be rescued.

"Razor, you need to go back home and tell your friends to come back. They will not be harmed." Said Rusty, pointing at the door, "These ponies are staying until all of you are back. That is the deal."

Razor frowned, his eyes sunk, "Oh… I see. Thanks for saving my life anyways, Techorse. Since we'll be going back to stealing our love, I sure hope to not have to fight you some day. If we do, take it easy on me."

Techorse tried his hardest not to cry as Razor hung his head and slowly left the room.

Steiner looked at the miserable expressions on his friends' faces. He was fed up with everything he had heard and lost it, yelling at Chrysalis, "You're a monster! We proved to you that our love was earnable and peace was possible. Now you're going to make Razor go back to a life he finds detestable?"

"Rusty, let's follow Razor and find the hive." She said, ignoring him, "We're going to force him to come back so I can get rid of these three pests. In fact, let's bring them with us. I'm getting tired of all this."

"Yes ma'am." He answered, following her out of the room. Before he completely exited, he said to the three quietly, "I'm sorry…"

Two female changeling guards, each one armored and carrying spears, forced the stallions to follow along.

* * *

Chrysalis, Rusty, Cloak, and a detachment of twenty troops both male and female left the hive and moved for the river. They spotted Razor by one of the bends of the large river, staring at a big wooden object. When they landed near him, they looked in awe at what they were seeing.

It was a large wooden age of sail ship, four decks high and a hundred feet long. Cannons and barrels dotted the top deck, and two masts bore huge canvas sails that caught the wind and pulled the ship down the river. Clearly it had been taken from the shipyard in the mountains, but the hive's troops had never found it. The ponies manning the ship, Celestia's guards in disguise, were wearing fake clip on gold earrings, and wore red and blue striped bandannas on their heads, as well as brown leather jackets and canvas clothing.

Chrysalis made her disgust clear, "Pirates? Seriously?"

A rope swung down from the crow's nest of the ship, and a disguised Captain Arbiter, dressed up in his old pirate costume Pinkie Pie had given him earlier, dropped down, landing in front of all the changelings on the bank of the river. The ship had laid anchor, and a boarding ramp of oak wood was being lowered down by the disguised guards.

"Yar!" exclaimed Arbiter, his eyepatch clearly helping his disguise, "I be the dreaded pirate, Captain Arrrrbiter!"

"I didn't know there were pirates anymore." Mused Chrysalis, suspecting something, but she played along anyways as her troops assembled in front of her, "Sadly boys, we're fresh out of gold coins and buried treasure. Go look elsewhere."

Arbiter looked directly at Techorse, who recoiled slightly when he recognized him. The Captain would have winked at him if the fact that he only had one eye made it indistinguishable from blinking. Razor mouthed the words "what the?" as Arbiter continued,

"We're already loaded up with treasure miss, but we'd like to consider something. It turns out that changeling right there in front of ye, his home is right on top of me great granddaddy's treasure the great captain chromabeard!"

"Is that so?" Said Chrysalis, swishing her tail.

The royal guards had assembled to the sides of arbiter. Five barrels had been rolled out along with them, and for some reason, they required holes in them. The queen noticed the barrels and knew that something had to be up. She hadn't even asked for something in the potential trade yet.

"As it turns out scurvy breath, we were on our way to that housing." She said to Arbiter, "You can have the treasure, we only want the residents."

"That'll never do miss. I promised grand pappy I would never harm a hair on the mane of anypony living on that treasure." He said, a floating metal gauntlet emerged from his side and grabbed his tricorne hat, which he held to his heart.

"How devoted." She said, "But nonetheless, you will be aiding us in retrieving the other changelings on that property."

"You dare challenge me?" he yelled at her, drawing his sword from his sheath. The changelings got ready to attack, as did the royal guards.

"Look, we know you're not really pirates." Said Chrysalis, "This is ridiculous. Pirates haven't been around for years, your ship clearly has a motor on the back of it, and furthermore your crew's medical conditions are too good. So who are you?"

The barrels started to shake, and the royal guards nearby backed away as they exploded into splinters. In their place stood Twilight, Nectar, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity.

Chrysalis shouted, "Twilight Sparkle!"

Techorse and his friend smiled at the mares, and Shadow's amulet glowed. Turning around, he quickly blasted the two changeling guards behind them with a shadow grenade, sending them careening away and freeing them.

The purple unicorn glared angrily at her enemy, and lowered her horn, firing off a bolt of magical energy. Chrysalis spread her wings and took off into the air to avoid it. The others all attacked the other changelings, and along with the royal guards, started to give them a sound beating.

Twilight and the Queen separated themselves from the rest of the group and began to fight.

Chrysalis said to her while hovering in the air, "I don't know how you got these mercenaries to fight for just your friends, but it matters little now."

"_Good._" Thought Twilight, "_She still doesn't know they're the royal guard._"

Chrysalis' scythe like horn glowed furiously as she fired a solid ray of energy at Twilight. She teleported away from the blast behind Chrysalis, narrowly avoiding the stream of light that left a scorching mark in the ground. Twilight fired her magic missile attack, and an elongated projectile of explosive magic struck Chrysalis in the left set of wings, exploding and sending her to the ground screaming. When she recovered from the attack, she angrily charged up a red ray and shot it at Twilight. This time she was unable to teleport away in time, and a bubble of light surrounded her. Chrysalis turned her head back, and Twilight was dragged through the air like a ragdoll. She then flicked her horn forward, and released the spell. Poor Twilight was flung through the air, yelling in terror as she cleared a nearby cliff.

"_TWILIGHT!_" shouted the other girls in unison.

The changelings took this loss of morale to their advantage, and the pirate-themed guards slowly began to lose the hoof to hoof fight. Chrysalis nursed her injured wing with her teeth, and watched as her children started to win the fight for her.

* * *

Twilight landed in the swamp miles away from the action, thankfully she was able to land in a soft patch of marsh to cushion her fall. The slightly shocked mare dragged herself out of the water, and laid her muddy head on the ground, panting as she tried to regain her breath. It was then out of the corner of her eye that she noticed a plant. A very familiar plant that happened to only grow in bog soil, bearing a blue pod facing the sky. Twilight looked at the plant, and she knew exactly what she could do to end this conflict.

* * *

Chrysalis laughed heartily as Pinkie Pie was pinned down by a pair of changelings. She tried not to scream, and sweated nervously. Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy had also been surrounded, and Techorse found himself trapped with Rarity and Steiner as well. Arbiter had been pushed backed along with his stallions back near the ship, unable to assist their friends.

"It's all over!" said Chrysalis, aiming her horn at the ship, "Once I smash this boat, they'll all be crushed by the pieces!"

"Hold it right there, Chrysalis!" said a voice behind her.

Chrysalis turned to see Twilight standing on top of a boulder.

"Ah, back for more punishment?" she cackled, charging up to attack Twilight instead.

Twilight quickly moved the plant she had taken from the swamp out from behind the boulder, and dropped it in front of herself with a hoof. It was a blue swampland flytrap, snapping furiously from being taken from its home.

The lavender mare then, with a quick flash from her horn, shot it with a growth spell. Immediately the small plant grew into a twenty foot tall monster, and Twilight jumped on its head. The mighty plant, now with roots big enough to stay mobile and a trap large enough to crunch anything, looked around with its limited senses before letting out a screech that caused everyone to stop fighting and look at the plant.

The swampland flytrap had a small bit of loyalty to Twilight thanks to her improvements in her magic, but more importantly, it was loyal to its hunger and need for nutrients.

Of course, it immediately figured out exactly what it wanted to eat. It wanted nothing more than the biggest, juiciest bug it could find, and the largest thing closest to that was right in front of it!

The plant opened its jaws and lunged for Chrysalis, who screamed and attempted to fly away from the plant. A vine shot out from the massive stem, and entangled the Queen, who cried out in terror as the carnivorous plant flipped her into his mouth and snapped its jaws hard. Chrysalis was unceremoniously swallowed whole by the magically grown plant, just as members of its species had done to Twilight more than a year ago.

Rusty cringed as he watched this happen, and the blue headed swampland flytrap laid down to rest, as it did whenever it engorged itself.

Steiner turned to Shadow Breeze and said slowly, "I… I changed my mind. Plants are pretty cool."

The changelings though, immediately fell to despair and approached Twilight, dropping their weapons and folding their wings humbly. They knew it was over, and carrying on the fight wouldn't do any good without their leader.

"Oh no!" said Rusty, running up to the plant, "Please! Twilight Sparkle, let our Queen go! She doesn't deserve this."

"That's debatable." Muttered Arbiter, who was immediately hit in the gut by Rarity.

Twilight pointed with a leg at Rusty and said, "If you let Razor go and promise to never bother his hive again, if you all sign a treaty ensuring that, then I'll get this plant to let Chrysalis go."

"Done!" exclaimed Rusty.

With that, Twilight cast another spell on the plant, and it coughed up Chrysalis, who was traumatized but still alive and well to some degree. The flytrap shrank back to its natural size, and seemed to make a little sighing noise from exhaustion.

"Rusty… I suppose I should thank you." The Queen said, standing up, "I honestly thought Twilight Sparkle had finished me."

"I wouldn't allow that." He said, comforting her.

"Queen Chrysalis." Said Twilight, getting her to turn around, "I know this whole thing was over wanting to get Razor's colony back, since I remember you mentioning how much you cared about all your changelings. If you really cared though, wouldn't you want them to live how they wanted to?"

Chrysalis hated to admit it, but Twilight was right, "You'd be correct. With that, I've decided that Razor and his followers may come and go as they please from my castle. The only provision I'm making is no longer treating them as traitors. I'm not signing any treaty, and I value Rusty for how good he is about lying to help me."

"Well it's better than nothing." Sighed Techorse.

"Let's pack up and move back home." Chrysalis demanded of her troops.

"We'll probably meet again Twilight Sparkle. But next time, you'll be on my dinner plate."

"I'm sure of it." She said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

* * *

The old hive left the friends, going back to the cave to pack up their gear and headed home. Twilight and company returned back to Ponyville along with Nectar and Razor, who decided to visit for a short while at Techorse's castle. All of the friends met outside of Steiner's shop, it was late at night, but the shop at least provided a nice place to talk.

"Thank you so much for helping to save me, Nectar." Said Razor, looking into her eyes, "How can I repay you?"

"Well for starters, a dinner together might be nice!" she said, "I can't drop hints anymore, Razor, I care about you."

"Oh!" he said, blushing, "Well, ok! We can go get dinner together in Ponyville tomorrow evening."

Pinkie Pie laughed as Steiner served everyone in the drink shop a fresh cold root beer, "Nice choice of reward, Nectar."

"I have to thank you girls for saving us too." Said Shadow Breeze, playing with his filled mug, "Especially you Fluttershy. You even helped me keep the plant!"

Shadow Breeze pointed with a wing to a terra cotta pot, with the blue swampland flytrap in it, its leaves stretched out towards the artificial light in the store, and its trap curled into what Twilight could swear was a smile.

"Oh, you're welcome." She answered meekly, "I think those plants could make good pets when they're kept under control. You'll take care of him, right?"

"Of course!" he answered, "I'll even let it outside twice a day to catch insects. Would you like to meet at the garden shop to help me pick out a decoration for the flower pot?"

"I'd love to!" she answered, smiling.

Techorse turned to Twilight and smiled at her, "I guess everything turned out in the end. Hopefully what I told you about Chrysalis from Rusty made sense."

"It did, and I've already sent a letter to the Princess about what we've all learned." She said, "Sometimes we don't always know the truth about why others act the way they do. We shouldn't feel bitter, just in case it turns out they have it much worse than we do."

"That's a very good lesson to learn." Said Rarity, "It's good to be thankful for what we have."

"Yeah, like free root beers!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

The friends laughed at the joke, which lightened the mood and lifted their spirits. Razor's colony was now safe to continue life out from under Chrysalis's rule, but many of them would still visit, which seemed to satisfy the Queen's need to help the other changelings. It was up to the future to determine if they would end up in conflict with the ponies again. But for now, peace was present, and that was all that mattered.

The end.


End file.
